Timing and operating mechanism for electrical appliances



V. DEGUARA Jan. 8, 1935.

TIMING AND OPERATING MECHANISM FOR ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES Filed Feb. 24, 1953 INVENTOR WITNESS c s MLW/KM Patented Jan. 8, 1 935 TIMING PATENT OFFICE AND orsm'rmo MECHANISM FOR ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES both of Detroit, Mich.

Application February 24, 1932, Serial No. 658,333 1 Claim. (or. zoo-s5) -My invention relates to timing and operating mechanism for eiectrical "appliances, and its principal object is to-provide a simple and emcient apparatu's'whereby various electrical appliances may be switched on and ofi at a predetermined time without any attention on the part of the operator or user.

With this and other objects in view, the invention will now be fully described as applied to an apparatus for household use in which it is desired to successively put in operation an alarm bell, a lamp, and some other form of electric appliance such as, for example, a washing machine, the whole of which is efiected automatically at such time as may be determined by the setting of any ordinary alarm clock, which in itself forms no part of the present invention, and which may be either mechanical or electrical.

Reference will be had to the accompanying drawing in which- Figure 1 is an elevation of a typical table lamp containing within its base a preferred form of my timing and operating mechanism.

Figure 2 is a diagram drawn to an enlarged scale showing a portion of the regular alarm clock mechanism together with switches and connections which I employ for the purposes outlined.

Figure 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Figure 2.

Like characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.

1 is the base, of any ordinary construction, upon which is mounted an alarm clock 2 of the well known square type, and above this is the tubular support 3 terminating at its upper end in a pair of lamp sockets 4 adapted to hold the bulbs 5. 6 is the winding handle for the time mechanism, 7 and 7' the knobs for setting the hands and alarm, respectively, while 8 indicates the fast and slow adjustment, all of ordinary construction. 9 is the handle usually employed for winding the alarm mechanism which, as ordinarily employed, has to be turned through a number of rotations but in the present case is required to move only through a portion of a circle in order to operate my improved mechanism in a manner to be hereinafter described. 10 is a strip of insulating material secured to the rear member of the clock in any convenient manner, and upon this strip is mounted a switch member 11 of the normally open spring type, the free end of which extends into the path of a radially projecting member 91 mounted upon the arbor 92 of the handle 9. 12 is a strip of insulating material also mounted upon the rear of the clock, and tothis strip is secured a switch member 13, also of the normally open spring pe.

Upon the member 11 is a spring contact 14 connected by a wire 15 to a secondary coil of a transformer 16, the said contact being arranged in co-operative relation with a terminal 1'7 connected by a wire 18 to one terminal of a bell 19, the other terminal of which is connected by a wire 20 to the transformer in the manner well known in the art, the arrangement being such that when the handle 9, together with the member 91, rotates in the direction of the arrow 21 in Figure 2 (due to the release of the regular alarm mechanism at the predetermined time) the contact 14 is pressed against the terminal 17, causing the bell to ring. Adjacent to the free end of the switch member 11 is a spring contact 22 arranged in co-operative relation with the terminal 23 which is connected by a wire 24 to one pole of the house wiring system, while the contact 22 is connected by a wire 25 to the wire 26 to one pole of a lamp socket 4, the other pole of which is also connected to the line in the well known manner.

By this arrangement, after the bell has been set in operation, further rotation of the handle 9 will cause the lamp to be lighted, as will be understood. The handle 9 will then continue to rotate at a predetermined speed so as to eventually release the switch member 11, thus causing the bell to be shut off and also the lamp, but it will be observed that the bell may be stopped at any time by the operator through a switch 27 in the line 18, also that, even if the lamp is disconnected by the mechanism above described, it may again be lighted by the operator through the switch 28 forming part of a by-pass 29.

In this manner the operation of the alarm bell and the lamp is conveniently and efiicienctly controlled, but I have provided, in addition, means for energizing the motor of any form of household appliance, said means comprising a receptacle 30 into which the motor connections may be plugged, the said receptacle being connected by a wire 31 to a spring contact 32 arranged in co-operative relation with a terminal 33 connected by a wire 34 to one pole of the line, the other terminal of the receptacle being connected to the other pole, the arrangement being such that continued rotation of the handle 9 after the operations above described have been completed will cause the switch member 13 to press the contact 32 against the terminal 33 and supply current to the receptacle in the well known manner.

As the member 9 turns past the end of the switch member 13, this switch member returns to the open position to break the circuit to the receptacle 30.

While I have herein described and shown a preferred embodiment of my invention as applied to household use, it will'be readily understood by those skilled in the art that the same may be modified in various ways to meet any particular or peculiar requirement, without departing from the spirit oi my invention. For example, while I have included but one'of the lamp sockets 4 in the circuit, it is obvious that any number of lamps may be included as well as any number of receptacles for use with other appliances, and that the mechanism may be arranged so as to cut ofi current from these appliances at a predeterminedtime instead ofturning them on. It is contemplated that when my apparatus is used for operating motors or other appliances in factories where the required current is considerably greater, magnetic relays or other means may be employed in conjunction with the contact which are shown here. It will be understood, also, that manually operated switches may be supplied at points adjacent to the appliances in addition to the switches shown.

Having thus described my said invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is: V p

' An apparatus of the character described comprising a base, an alarmclock mounted on the base, an alarm winding key, an insulating strip mounted on the alarm clock, a yieldable switch member supported'on the insulating strip, a spring'con'tact carried by the switch member, a contact mounted on the base beneath said spring contact, the switch member extending into the path of rotationsof the alarm winding key, the arrangement beingsuch that as the alarm winding key rotates the switch member is moved thereby to press the spring contact into engagement with the contact on the base and as the rotation of the alarm winding key continues it moves out of engagement with the yieldable switchmember allowing the same to return the spring contact to inoperative position.

. VINCENT DEGUARA. 

